Brother PE150V

Hi everyone. I just bought a Brother PE150V machine and want to put my own graphics into the machine. What do I need to do to do this?

I've read about the Ultimate Box and such. How does this all work?

Where is the best place to get this hardware and accompanying software?

Regards,

John

(What I want to do is to put a Ferrari logo,{ ie. prancing horse} on a jacket)

500,000 battered women every year, yet I still eat mine plain
Reply to
rivee
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Hi, John,

You have a big learning curve ahead. Good luck. I hope the group doesn't mind my repeating an earlier post.

---------- Digitizing versus conversion.

There are a lot of graphics formats out there -- BMP, JPG, GIF. There are also a lot of embroidery formats out there -- HUS, PES, etc.

What do the latter have that the former don't? They may look similar on a screen, but the embroidery files carry a lot more information than a simple graphics file does. What fill stitch? What orientation (direction), length, density? In what order are the sections to be stitched?

None of this information is available from a BMP or JPG. That's why a lot of the discussion you see here is about converting between existing embroidery formats. The stitch information has already been established; when converting, the question is how to get it from one proprietary format to another.

When you're starting with a graphics file (or an image in your head), and you're trying to produce that as a machine embroidery file, that's digitizing; taking that image, or concept, and executing it as a fully realized stitched product. That's when high-end digitizers and learning curves come into play.

There are easy-to-use, inexpensive tools such as Embird, that are very useful but won't let you create a design from scratch. For many users, that's okay. You can download designs in different formats; resize them; eliminate unwanted elements, as was recently noted in another thread; change colors, add text; combine results; etc. But you won't be able to take a bitmap file and turn it into an embroidery file.

Digitizing is an art in itself. The better vendors of digitized images have put a lot of effort into producing files that will sew well under a variety of circumstances. That's not to say the hobbyist won't also achieve good results, but I'm still going through that learning process, and I have the test stitch-outs to show for it.

Reply to
Judy

Thanks Judy for the info.

My next ? is what hardware and software do I need to be able to download a graphic from the net, put it on a memory card and embroid it?

Regards,

John

500,000 battered women every year, yet I still eat mine plain
Reply to
rivee

Thanks Judy for the info. I guess my biggest question is what do I need to get first to start to be able to embroid graphics of my choosing, or should I say different graphics downloaded from the net?

Where do you find digitized graphics on the net? Where could I find a 1" red prancing horse digitized?

Regards,

John

500,000 battered women every year, yet I still eat mine plain
Reply to
rivee

Judy

For your Brother machine you are going to need to get PE Design that comes with a "dongle" this device hooks to your computer and gives you the software that lets you convert files from other formats and write them to a memory card that will allow you to transfer them to your machine to embroider them.

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also use EmBird to convert and create files
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I findthat the 2 software programs together work very well to do everything that Ineed to do.

Reply to
Brian Oliver

John,

At the very least, to transfer designs from the Internet, you'll need the hardware -- a card reader/writer and a blank card -- so you can put the design on a card and use that card in your PE150W.

"The Amazing Box" and "Magic Box" are two that get discussed a lot. I have PE-Design (a rather expensive digitizer) and that came with its own box, so I can't discuss the merits of transfer boxes, but I'm sure others here can gives pros, cons, and best prices.

The next thing to consider, imho, would be Embird. It's that handy tool for modifying and converting designs that I mentioned earlier, but it won't let you create a design from a graphic file. It works only with files that already have stitch information defined.

If you really want to take the plunge into creating your own designs, then you need to consider digitizers (which have their own methods of transferring designs). I like Pe-Design; others hate it. It's a big investment so you want to learn as much as you can about digitizing software first.

Embird has a new add-on that's a very reasonable price for a digitizer, and allows you a one-month free trial. I haven't checked it out, but if it's like their basic product it is a great value.

Reply to
Judy

I have the 180D which is the same as your machine except for the Disney characters. I have the Ultimate Box which I bought from Allbrands, and two blank cards. I also recently bought Embird. You can download free embroidery files from many embroidery sites on the web, and you can buy designs also. After you download them (usually in a zip file) you unzip the file and use the software with the Ultimate Box to put the designs on a card that will go into your machine. With Embird you can play with already digitized designs: split them, remove parts, add things, add text., etc. You can resize designs that are too big for your machine, change the order in which parts of the design are sewn, and watch a simulated sew out - neat to see, and will tell you if you've made any obvious goofs before you commit to thread.

I had a trial of Embird Studio, which is their digitizing program. I didn't buy it, because the demo version has a stitch limit which, in my opinion, made it difficult to determine whether I wanted it. I still haven't ruled it out and may go that way in the future.

Iris

Reply to
I.E.Z.

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